Corning Again Criticizes Sapphire as Potential Alternative to Gorilla Glass

[MacRumors]

Corning Glass senior vice president Tony Tripeny spoke critically of sapphire as a material for displays during a question and answer session at the recent Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference (Via Seeking Alpha and CNET). His responses reiterate the company's earlier opposition to sapphire crystal.

Corning Gorilla Glass 2​

Morgan Stanley's James Fawcett asked Tripeny about sapphire versus glass now that "there is one large handset and device maker that people suspect maybe looking at Sapphire." This one large manufacturer is obviously Apple, which is building a plant in Arizona to manufacture sapphire for "a secret project," possibly the iWatch or the next generation iPhone. Tripeny didn't hold back in his criticism of the sapphire crystal material.

When we look at it, we see a lot of disadvantages of Sapphire versus Gorilla Glass. It's about 10 times more expensive. It's about 1.6 times heavier. It's environmentally unfriendly. It takes about 100 times more energy to generate a Sapphire crystal than it does glass. It transmits less light which it means either dimmer devices or shorter battery life. It continues to break. I think while it's scratch resistant product it still breaks and our testing says that Gorilla Glass, about 2.5 times more pressure that it can take than Sapphire on. So when we look at it, we think from an overall industry and trend that is not attractive in consumer electronics.

Fawcett continued to query Tripeny on the material with the Corning executive hinting that Apple is looking at sapphire for its marketing appeal as the material "has got a very sexy name." Tripeny also mentions the extra cost and lower manufacturing yield of sapphire crystal when compared to Gorilla Glass.

The formation takes about 4,000 times longer than Gorilla Glass at a significantly higher melting temperature. Its hardness makes machining more difficult and costly. Then the cost per unit increases exponentially because when you have defects in boundaries in the crystal growth process, you essentially cut them out and so unlike glass where we have developed technologies so that we can have very large pristine pieces of glass, when you have that on crystals, what you end up doing is always having a yield issue. So it is really those items that make things more expensive.

Corning now is manufacturing Gorilla Glass 3 for use in smartphones and tablets. Announced at CES 2013, the material is three times more damage resistant than its predecessor Gorilla Glass 2. The company earlier this year also announced a new shaped Gorilla Glass product for devices that require a curved display and a version of its Gorilla Glass with antimicrobial properties.

Article Link: Corning Again Criticizes Sapphire as Potential Alternative to Gorilla Glass

 

[Cali Fornia]

Of course they have to complain, they are losing money.

 

[2bikes]

Qualcomm criticizes 64bit processor?

 

[Rudy69]

A company bashing a competing product? No way

 

[luv2seaters]

Golilla Glass is a JOKE

They are worried about loosing business.Gorilla Glass is NOT strong.I have owned every Apple iPhone including the first one.I am careful with my phones and keep them in a case.I have had 3 screens break.Gorilla glass is not strong at all and can't wait for Apple to use something else.

 

[wlad]

Corning, if I were you I would get into the sapphire business ASAP. Forget complaining! Get to work!

 

[jkichline]

Sour grapes...

How many sour grapes can Gorilla Glass hold? Sounds like this is a company that is scared. If they weren't, they would simply taut the advantages of Gorilla Glass. But if they are attacking sapphire based on an older understanding of the material (keep in mind that Apple and GT have invented a new process that is unknown and top secret right now) then they are scared of what could be. Apple would not release a product that exhibits all the disadvantages that they are saying, so obviously there's some anxiety of what is coming.

That being said, Corning should be grateful to Apple and Steve Jobs for knocking on their door and resurrecting Gorilla Glass and putting them into a whole new industry.

 

[Ted13]

Well, at least he didn't say it was a "marketing gimmick".

Of course if sapphire iPhones prove a real world success, watch Corning fire Tripeny and franticly pivot towards making their own Gorilla Sapphire...

 

[CausticPuppy]

It transmits less light which it means either dimmer devices or shorter battery life.

uh, what?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapphire#Transparency_and_hardness


I guess transparency might be an issue if Apple decides to use 5-foot-thick glass on their devices.

Shattering isn't the problem-- maybe Corning can let us know when they make a version of Gorilla Glass that scores a 9 on the Mohs scale.

 

[Trik]

It's ironic that the only reason Gorilla Glass made an impact in the market is because Steve Jobs found a use case for it and forced Corning to mass produce it, and now Apple may be moving onto another display technology that this guy is saying is too unattractive for consumer use.

 

[dustinsc]

I don't think it's necessarily an either/or proposition. Could use sapphire just for the top layer, which would increase scratch resistance.

 

[zorinlynx]

Ya know, in my years of using mobile devices, seeing them in the field, and so on, SCRATCHES are not even close to being a common problem.

CRACKING is. We need glass that is resistant to shock and won't spiderweb when dropped. Current smart phone and tablet screens are already fairly resistant to scratches; I don't use a screen protector on my iPhone and I certainly don't baby it yet there are no easily visible scratches.

I think Apple is going in the wrong direction with sapphire glass. It's okay for the camera; that's a tiny piece and the camera does get abuse because it's on the back of the phone, but not for the screen!

 

[M.PaulCezanne]

Huh?

I think while it's scratch resistant product it still breaks and our testing says that Gorilla Glass, about 2.5 times more pressure that it can take than Sapphire on.

Is this an English sentence?

Its hardness makes machining more difficult and costly.

And yet it breaks more than Gorilla Glass?

Hmm... Credibility prob, bro.

 

[CausticPuppy]

Well, at least he didn't say it was a "marketing gimmick".

Of course if sapphire iPhones prove a real world success, watch Corning fire Tripeny and franticly pivot towards making their own Gorilla Sapphire...

You know Samsung is rushing to figure out how to slap a slab of sapphire on one of their devices now.

Coming this summer: Samsung Gear(tm) Sapphire

----------

Oh crap, I'm late for a meeting. I lost track of time since I can barely see the watch hands through my dim sapphire watch crystal.

 

[japanime]

James Fawcett was always my favorite of the three Charlie's Angels.

 

[Popeye206]

Thank goodness Corning has cleared this up… Apple just doesn't seem to have a clue about what's the best glass for it's products.

 

[thepowerofnone]

I say this every time that sapphire comes up, but sapphire is so hard that if you put it in your pocket with your keys, it will scratch your keys... GG has nothing on that.

Yes, GG is impressive when you they put it in their testing rig and apply a pressure to it and no, sapphire won't solve the issue of your screen breaking when you drop it, but a curved screen could well solve that (the edges of the glass are no longer in the same plane as the edges of the device). GG has good stats on the tests Corning do to market it, but many of those tests have limited real world application. Personally I rarely take a hammer to my iPhone.

 

[musika]

"I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been."
- Wayne Gretzky (and often quoted by Steve Jobs, which is how I know of the quote)

Corning is a big winner from the first 10 years of the new age of smartphones. If they're smart, they're looking forward so that they can be a big winner in the next 10 years. If they're not even trying to work with sapphire for future products, they won't be as proud 10 years down the road.

 

[djplaxe2109]

"Gah I wish we were first to market with sapphire glass."-Corning

 

[Moorepheus]

They are worried about loosing business.Gorilla Glass is NOT strong.I have owned every Apple iPhone including the first one.I am careful with my phones and keep them in a case.I have had 3 screens break.Gorilla glass is not strong at all and can't wait for Apple to use something else.

I have had every iPhone also, and have never broke a screen. In fact, there are 4 iPhones in my family, 2 iPods and 2 iPads, only one of them had the screen break and that was because my step-daughter was roller blading and it fell out of her hand on the ground and then she ran it over...it was the rolling it over that cracked the screen, not the drop onto the concrete driveway that caused it to crack.

However, they are prone to scratches, which I have seen on every Apple device that has Gorilla Glass.

 

[muadibe]

Sapphire vs. Gorilla Glass

This isn’t just about sapphire versus Gorilla Glass. If you read up on GT Advanced Technologies and their current undertakings, you will see there is a strong likelihood solar charging technology will be part of that sapphire implementation.

GT seems to have developed a process of using multiple layers of charging films, greatly enhancing charging efficiency. If this is what Apple is up to, the competition will look distinctly prehistoric – particularly since Apple has exclusive access to this new tech.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/206...logies-is-ready-to-electrify-the-mobile-world

 

[samcraig]

They are worried about loosing business.Gorilla Glass is NOT strong.I have owned every Apple iPhone including the first one.I am careful with my phones and keep them in a case.I have had 3 screens break.Gorilla glass is not strong at all and can't wait for Apple to use something else.

All glass breaks. Sapphire won't be any different.

 

[Crosscreek]

Corning is a good source to talk about whats good for the environment.

 

[muadibe]

All glass breaks. Sapphire won't be any different.

When that sapphire incorporates technology to charge your iPhone, it will actually be quite different!

 

[mdridwan47]

Breakable ?
---------
Sapphire : ✓
Corning GG : ✓

Scratch Proof ?
----------------
Sapphire : ✓
Corning GG : X

Sapphire wins. End of story.
Also with re-usable crucible sapphire cost will come down significantly.
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